Bed-ridden since Wimbledon, Jelena Dokic will make yet another courageous tennis comeback on Monday (Tuesday AEST) when she takes on Belgian Kirsten Flipkens in the first round of the US Open in New York.

Dokic has been suffering in silence from mononucleosis - the same energy-sapping virus that befell Roger Federer last year - and on Saturday revealed she "wasn't even able to walk for eight weeks" for fear of worsening her already debilitating condition.

"Three weeks ago I started slowly, so just the fact that I'm here is great," Dokic told AAP.
"Obviously I cannot expect much from myself, but I wanted to come here just to get that first match and I still have a lot to play for the rest of the year."

Dokic, who enchanted fans in January with her emotion-charged run to the Australian Open quarter-finals as a wildcard, is desperate to revive her season and avoid spiralling once again to outside the world's top 100.

"I have a lot of tournaments planned to play hopefully - if I'm healthy - to try to gain some matches and some points that I will have to defend at the Australian Open obviously," the one-time world No.4 said.
"So that's the main thing now."

Dokic said she first started feeling unwell at Indian Wells and eventually had to take a 10-week layoff after fading to a three-set loss to German Tatjana Malek in the first round at Wimbledon.

"I was very, very tired and fatigued at times," Dokic said. "I got tested after Wimbledon and it was 'mono'.
"Sometimes you get better, but then you get worse. You can't practise fully day in, day out.
"For me, it was gradual. I got sick and I got gradually worse.

"So I had to be on complete bed-rest for eight weeks. It was fairly acute. I couldn't do anything. I wasn't even able to walk for eight weeks because you can make it worse.
"It's been hard. But the main thing is that I'm good now."

GOOD LUCK JELENA. I hope you can win a match and finish the year in good health and with some more wins/points!!